Ahead of Lok Sabha 2019, Congress to address five key issues in its campaign

The Congress has identified five major issues that it will address in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sources said.

The sources have added that Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to build a campaign ‘exposing the stark contrast between the Congress and the BJP’ and that it will ‘take the anti-Modi campaign’ to the next level.

As of now, the present attempt is limited to chiseling away the halo around him built on his key decision like demonetisation, surgical strikes, GST, muscular foreign policy and anti-corruption image. But as of now, the criticism has not addressed the issue of alternative vision.

Congress Party has identified agriculture, jobs, education, health care and foreign policy as key areas to address. The campaign will include Rahul Gandhi being interviewed by media houses, as well as social media interface.

These subjects have been identified as areas which require massive transformation. The Congress has said they will use these topics and provide alternatives to PM Narendra Modi’s vision on these subjects.

Sources say that the work on these five areas has already started and meeting with stake holders are being done in a phased manner. Congress has also decided to focus more on smaller target groups like colleges to create mini events which are more intimate and conversational. To put forward these views, the party is also in the exercise to identify ‘strong credible voices’ for the national campaign in run up to the Lok Sabha elections. “Everything cannot depend on Rahul Gandhi and he cannot be everywhere,” said a person involved in the project.

This focus has been accompanied with a vibrant social media strategy. Congress is also working to target new voters and women as specific constituencies. To this effect Rahul Gandhi’s team has utilised both Facebook and Twitter intensively. It was for this reason that Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook engagement has increased dramatically and his recent outing at 66 Bhog in Madhya Pradesh registered 3.2 million views.